


Where You Lead

by vintagegal157 (kirstizoe)



Category: Gilmore Girls, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crack Treated Seriously, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, F/M, Friends to Lovers, M/M, The Author Regrets Nothing, The Author is also clearly ignoring so called cannon relationships, The Author is looking at you Avengers: Age of Ultron, This crack tastes like Luke's coffee
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-05-31 18:09:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6481405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirstizoe/pseuds/vintagegal157
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A nice quiet small town life, thats what Steve and Bucky were looking for. Lemonade on the porch, inviting friends over for the weekend being real people. What they got? Nosey neighbors, crazy town meetings, revolutionary war muskets going off in their living room, and more fun than they've had since the Great Depression. This is what happen when Steve and Bucky move to Stars Hollow and the Avengers follow. </p><p>Tags updated as the story updates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Star Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers

It was Bucky’s therapist who first suggested the move. New York had changed drastically in the 70 odd years that he had been frozen, brainwashed, and unfrozen repeatedly. The trauma of the time change alone would be enough to impede his recovery, she said, adding the dissonance of the city he expected from the city he was living in was making it worse. So she suggested he move to a small town. It sounded like hell to Bucky but Steve thought it was a good idea. A change of pace would be good for both of them, he said. They found themselves becoming attached to a small town near Hartford, Connecticut. Some place called Stars Hollow. Bucky rolled his eyes at the name.

            The boys spoke to Pepper (who knew a guy who knew a guy) and ended up purchasing a modest three bedroom on Peach Street with an wide sweeping porch and a gravel driveway. Steve smiled at the way the screen door slammed and the way the bannister squeaked.  There were lilac bushes that were already in bloom in front of the house and a large birch tree in the back yard that provided just enough shade to make the yard comfortable.

            The first night after the move they sat on the porch in the tasteful but expensive wicker furniture that Pepper’s designer friend had purchased for them, sipping beers and listening to the chattering of the neighbors, the early summer crickets, and what sounded inexplicably like a jazz piano from several blocks away. The air was heavy and humid already and the scent of the lilacs was thick in the air, and somewhere deep inside Bucky it almost felt like home.

            This peace lasted for about five minutes before a petite but stoutly built woman with a shock of curly blond hair scurried up their front steps. She couldn’t have been more than 5’2” but with a squawk of joy she hauled Steve and Bucky to their feet in turn hugging them firmly around their middles. (Later that evening they would question each other as to if they felt her hands wander elsewhere south of their waists. Later that year after daily run ins with the woman they came to know as Babette they knew better than to question if she had taken a grab at their rears. They knew it.)

            “IT’S so NICE to see this house full again. It’s a beautiful home you know and Suzy Tippleton would have died here if her mother hadn’t gotten sick. Cancer you know, well you wouldn’t would you cause you just moved here! Tragic. Her mother being so old and all but what can you do which was why she had to move to Kansas. Kansas! What they got there but Dorothy and the Tin man I couldn’t tell you but she had to move out there to take care of her mom which was nice. My mom, bless her, died about twenty years ago so I won’t be having to take care of her but Morey’s parents THAT will be the issue. They’ve got stick about a MILE long stuck up… But WHERE ARE MY MANNERS! Of course you don’t even know who I am my heads so full of air it’ll float away any day now- I’m Babette I live just up Elm which is just north of here if you hear a Jazz piano it’s coming from my house. My husband, that’s Morey, he’s a musician. Either one of you boys a musician? I just love a musician.” She finally paused for a breath  and squeezed Bucky’s arm. Bucky, who had seen the look of horror on Steve’s face, seized the opportunity.

            An easy grin spread over his face lighting it up carefully from the inside out. He swept a lock of hair behind his ear “Why Babette if Steve here and I knew that such a dame existed outside of New York, and that we’d be lucky enough to have her as our neighbor we’d have moved here years ago. Ain’t that right Stevie?” Turning on the Brooklyn drawl he smiled cheekily at Steve who, while still looking pale from the sheer force of shock that Babette exuded, had at least caught his breath.

Blinking quickly Steve nodded his head and cleared his throat “O-of course. Couldn’t imagine two luckier fellas in the whole of the northeast.”

Bucky smiled back at Babette who was practically purring under the attention of “Two fine young things such as yourselves. Well you come over anytime and we’ll feed you boys some supper. Town meetin’ is this Tuesday at 8pm at Miss Patty’s. That’s the dance studio in the center of town. Can’t miss it. Right across the square from Luke’s Diner, but you know where that is! Best coffee in town! Luke is married to Loralai owner of the Dragonfly Inn? That pretty little place on Sores and Boils Alley? Pitty about the name of the street but it does quite a bit of good business. Say either of you boys looking for some part time work I know Lorelai is looking for a part time handy man. Anyway you cute young things. I gotta be going I hear Morey playing my song. I’m sure I’ll see you boys at the meeting buh-bye!” And Babette whirled out almost as quickly as she blew in.

As soon as she was halfway down the block Steve and Bucky took one look at each other and feel exhausted back into the expensive wicker furniture at once bursting into peals of laughter. If that encounter had been any indication of the type of character that ran in this town then they’d be in for a wild ride.

            The next morning the only things in the house that had been set up had been beds so they decided to make their way to the famous Luke’s Diner for breakfast. They had driven past the place when they came through town to look at houses, and on their way in with the truckloads of furniture, but had never actually set foot in the place. Both Steve and Bucky’s faces were rather well known. Steve, for obvious reasons. After the battle of New York when he lost his helmet concealing his identity became a moot point. Bucky, though less well known than Steve for his wartime escapades was nonetheless featured heavily in the history books and after the public trial and acquittal that followed his face was almost as well known as Steve’s and that was saying something.

            They sat down at a mid century formica table with their ball caps pulled low over their faces and sunglasses perched on their noses. Luckily for them, the taciturn owner, Luke, gave no indication that he recognized them. He only grunted a greeting as coffee cups were filled and orders taken. As they were tucking in to the best eggs and hashbrowns Bucky swore he’d ever tasted, they were interrupted by a tall lanky man, who looked, more than anything else, like a stork dressed entirely in Revolutionary War regalia, complete with powdered wig. Steve and Bucky stared at him, blinking owlishly.

“Kirk.” Luke greeted, from behind the counter, nose buried in the toaster he was elbow deep in fixing and giving no indication he even saw the bizarre getup.

“Luke.” Kirk said, sweeping his coattails aside to sit at the counter. Luke brought him coffee, but paused when Kirk held up what appeared to be a leather flask. “The Stars Hollow Society of Revolutionary Reenactors insist on authenticity.”

“I sell coffee by the mug, Kirk.” said Luke, choosing to ignore the flask and pouring a mug full of coffee.

“The Stars Hollow Soc-”

“You get a mug, Kirk” and Luke placed the mug firmly in front of Kirk.

“I see.” Kirk paused. “Then I require the use of a funnel.”

“We’re always looking for new members,” Kirk said, catching Bucky and Steve’s stares. “Fair warning though, our muskets do take 20 minutes to load and have been known to misfire, but all of that will be covered in the waiver.”

Bucky turned to Steve after Kirk had left. “Clint needs to come here,” he said. “Steve, Clint needed to come here yesterday.”

“So invite him,” said Steve, sipping his coffee. Bucky looked down at his hands. “You mean he’d actually come?” Bucky muttered, looking down. Steve set down his mug. “Buck,” he said, putting a hand over Bucky’s metal one, “This is our shot at being people, for the first time ever. We can just be...regular people, who do people things.” Bucky chuckled, because god, if only the good folks of America knew that about 40% the Captain’s rousing speeches came from his brilliant brain, and the other 60% was bluffing.

“And inviting our friends over for a weekend is a thing regular people do,” Steve finished.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” said Steve, drawing his thumb across Bucky’s knuckles with a smile.


	2. Trashcans and Taylor Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint and Natasha decide to visit Bucky and Steve in their new small town home. They discover the magic of Luke's Diner, and the horror (and humor) that is Taylor Dose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! Thanks for being so patient with the update. I've been dealing with an ongoing health issue that makes being a human hard. So updates WILL happen, just not as regularly as I or probably any of you would want. But FEAR NOT. They will happen. A girl's gotta keep a bright shining spot in her life and writing this fic has been that for me. Enjoy!
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to my college boss who wouldn't let us have trash cans behind our desks in the housing office because she thought they looked unprofessional. True story.

Getting the Avengers to visit Stars Hollow was easier than Bucky thought. In fact, keeping them from outright moving to Stars Hollow and taking over the town was going to be the real issue at hand. (Save for Tony who only needed to visit the town once to declare it a “Nice weekend getaway” but that he couldn’t live anywhere that didn’t have a 24 hour donut shop. Steve decided wisely not to tell him about Weston’s Bakery) Clint was, of course the first to visit not letting the Steve and Bucky settle in for more than 24 hours before there was a cursory knock at the door followed by him barging in dragging 50 pounds of luggage and gear in tow.

“The drive from New York was RIDICULOUS and ‘Tasha wouldn’t let me drive. You know what that woman is like on the interstate? Nevermind. Of course you both know. Coffee. Now.” he shouted into the house, dumping his stuff in the middle of the entry way. “I passed a diner on my way through, let’s GO!” The boys were sprawled across the living room furniture, and sighed resignedly. Clint stared at them. “You guys really want to make “Tasha wait for coffee? Taking your life into your own hands dudes. She’s Russian.The only thing she takes more seriously than coffee is vodka and even then-”

“Jesus, we’re coming!” Bucky said standing up and searching for his wallet and keys. “You might have given us more than a moment’s notice…” Steve and Clint stopped and gave him a blank look. Bucky sighed. “You’re right. What was I thinking. Look who I’m talking to. Nevermind let’s go” and he shut the front door behind him. 

“Ah my two favorite centennials. You know there’s no sign for this road right?”

“We told you  to take a left at the statue of Monty the Rooster.”

“I thought you were kidding.”

Steve sighed. “No apparently ‘it’s a small town thing. We don’t make fun of Monty the Rooster.”

Bucky grinned cheekily. “Monty the Rooster Monty.”

“He’s named twice?” Natasha deadpanned. 

“Hey! Who visited who here? You visit our town you deal with our weirdness.” Steve shouted at her. He looked down at her still parked in her matte black maserati. (She would) “Get out of the car we’re walking.”

She stared at him icily, but eventually relinquished rolling her eyes and sighing deeply. 

“Oh come on, Nat! Nothing like a little fresh air!” said Clint, spreading his arms and taking an exaggerated breath in.   
“I’ve had my fill of fresh air,” said Natasha. “In Siberia. Belfast. The Ivory Coast.” Her expression remained stony, but she leaned forward on tiptoe to ruffle Bucky’s hair and knocked into Steve’s shoulder as she hurried to match his longer stride.

“Don’t you guys miss living in the city? There was that little Mexican place that you guys always went for breakfast with the really good coffee?” Clint stared. “As your friend I’m worried about you. You know we can’t leave you stranded somewhere without good coffee.”

Natasha snorted “Yeah and we’ve seen the way you eat. That and the fact that James can only boil a potato without setting the house on fire…”

“Oh shut up and go inside,” Bucky said holding the door to Luke’s open.

Their friends’ wariness upon entering Luke’s Diner  only lasted half a second , which was coincidently the same amount of time it took for Luke’s coffee to meet Clint’s mouth. And if Clint was at ease, so was Natasha. (Although her blissed-out expression after taking a bite of blueberry muffin might also have had something to do with it.) 

Luke ambled up to the table a few minutes after the coffee and muffins had set in notepad in hand ready. “Anything else? We’ve got huevos rancheros today mostly because Lorelai’s been complaining that I don’t update my special board often enough. And once she gets going-- Well you’ve met her.”

“No actually we haven’t yet.” Bucky said his mouth full of muffin. Steve elbowed him in the side and he swallowed. “I mean we’ve only been here a few days and these morons- sorry! Friends, friends come to town.” He said rubbing the side of his head where Natasha had swiped at his head. 

“If I’d wanted to hurt you I would have.” she said sipping her coffee smoothly. Bucky snorted and the metal plates of his arm twitched. 

“We’ll have two orders of huevos rancheros extra sausage on the side for one, crispy bacon with the other, the double stack of blueberry pancakes, and a double order of the farmers breakfast, pancakes today not waffles.” Luke jotted it all down and returned to the counter to put the order in. 

About a half hour later the diner door opened with an almighty jingle and a deep booming voice filled the room. “LUKE!” The Avengers assembled in the diner looked up from their plates. Steve’s fork had paused halfway to his mouth, cheese dripping slowly off the eggs. Clint’s cheeks were stuffed full like a chipmunk bacon poking out of his lips ever so slightly. Bucky swallowed loudly. Natasha meanwhile hadn’t even flinched but she sipped her coffee with a carefully raised eyebrow. 

A portly man wearing a Mister Roger’s cardigan, khakis and loafers had blown into the diner with all of the force and bluster of General Patton. The energy in the room shifted suddenly and all eyes turned to the diner owner whose shoulders had hunched up in anticipation of attack. 

“Luke we need to talk,” the portly man said his sharp eyes narrowed and focused on the front of Luke’s baseball hat. He slowly turned around, growling almost imperceptibly. 

“What is it Taylor,” his voice would have sounded menacing to anyone else and he threw his dish towel across the counter. 

Taylor was unmoved. “It’s your trashcans,’’ Luke’s fists clenched and jaw tightened but otherwise made no move to acknowledge the statement. Taylor sighed. “You have yet to purchase or pick up your new town approved trash receptacles, Luke. You only have  _ one week _ left to comply and then I’m afraid I’m going to have to have to cite and bill you both for the receptacles and the necessary fines.” 

Luke growled again, deeper this time, and a pregnant pause hung heavy in the air when suddenly- “You KNOW WHAT TAYLOR? No. This time? No. I will. Not. Stand for it. Every year. Year after year I hold my tongue  but this time you’ve GONE. TOO. FAR.” Luke punctuated every word with a sharp poke to Taylor’s be-sweatered chest. 

“What is he talking about?” Clint whispered. “Your town has mandated trash cans?” his eyes were wide. 

“Yes.” Steve with the same tone and blank look he usually reserved for debriefings and field reports. 

“ And…” Bucky encouraged.

“And they’re pink.” Steve said suddenly taking a great interest in cutting his pancakes up into bite sized pieces. 

“Pink.” Natasha stared. 

“ _ Bubblegum _ pink.” Bucky sighed. 

Steve groaned and rubbed his face. “Our neighbor explained it. Something about town beautification?”

“Really it makes it look like a My Little Pony is going to shoot up in the alleyway.” Bucky massaged the bridge of his nose. 

The ensuing laughter interrupted the ongoing fight in the background. Taylor Dose, turned and and stared at the table making the ruckus. Several of them looked oddly familiar to him but he couldn’t quite make the connection. He turned and narrowed his eyes at Luke. “This is  _ not _  finished young man.”  And he turned on his heel and walked over to the the group and proffered his hand to Steve. 

“Taylor Dose, Town Selectman of this fine little hamlet. I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and welcome you  to the bosom of warmth that is this historic community.” Steve blinked up at the grandfatherly figure before him shaking his arm like a water pump. Clint coughed suspiciously and Natasha kicked him in the shins. 

“Oh. Well. Uh. Thank you?” Steve managed to stutter out. 

Taylor’s smile faded a fraction. “I’m afraid I haven’t caught your companions or your names?”  Taylor smiled leaning in. 

Steve cleared his throat  his face darkening. “Ah, yes. My name. Well this here is Clint and Natasha. Friends of ours visiting from New York. And uh, *ahem* this is, uh,  Buckyandimsteve *cough* and we just moved to Stars Hollow a few days ago. Happy to be here of course.” Natasha kicked him in the shins again and he winced. 

Steve looked up at Taylor and he could see the puzzle piece falling into place behind his eyes, but he blinked and it was gone, replaced by a snake oil salesman grin. “ _ Well _ then let me just tell you again how happy we are to have you here, uh,  _ Steve _ . Officially that is of course.” Taylor looked like Christmas had come early and his stocking had been filled with perfectly collated binders and a new three hole punch. He turned again to Luke, gave him a dark look, and blew out as quickly as he blew in. 

Luke’s sighed deeply and adjusted his baseball cap. 

“You want him taken out?” Clint asked,  blinking up at the diner owner managing to sound completely serious around a full mouth. “Because I’ll take him out.” 

“No!” yelled Steve and Bucky, at the same time. Natasha just gave a disappointed little sigh. “This is pathetic. Do you have any idea how many years it took for him to trust me?” she asked Luke. Clint pointed a fork in her direction. “You never made me huevos rancheros,” he said accusingly. Natasha glowered, which made Clint mutter something that ended in ‘sweetie.’ 

“No bloodshed in my diner,” Luke deadpanned. “But anything that happens outside of here, without my knowledge…” Clint gave a quick salute, still stuffing his face. “And before the next town meeting would be preferable,” Luke continued, scrubbing the inside of a coffee pot as though it were Taylor’s face. Clint and Natasha lowered their forks simultaneously, gaping at Steve and Bucky. 

“Town….meeting?” Natasha said slowly. Steve shrugged. “Yeah, you know. Everyone gets to meet, discuss issues of common interest, vote on stuff. Kinda nice.”

“I thought it was a dumb idea but Steve heard the word ‘vote’ and well, you know,” said Bucky. “But it turns out they’re entertaining as hell.” 

“We’re going,” said Clint, at the same time Natasha said, “You’re taking us.”  Their eyes wide and mouths split with toothy grins. 

Steve moaned. “Do you think he recognized me?”

“Nah,” Clint said. “He obviously is a fan of my work and is waiting for the right moment to ask for an autograph.” Somehow his mouth was still full of food. 

Steve groaned and Bucky patted him on the back. “There, there, Stevie. It was only a matter of time before someone recognized you anyway.” and sipped his coffee casually. Steve looked down at his half eaten breakfast and sighed deeply. He had a feeling he was going to need his tactical gear for this town meeting.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey friends! Let me know in the comments if there are any Stars Hollow experiences you would love to hear our Avengers experience. I've got a rough idea in mind of what will happen but I'm open to ideas. Each chapter will be roughly a one-shot with a loose plot tying the whole thing together. Also THANK YOU to my wonderful beta to whom this idea would never have come about.


End file.
